Stovin Recommends Distributed Business – Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
At Stovin Advertising, we believe the old saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies just as much to business as it does to investing.
In computing, distributed systems spread workloads across multiple computers rather than relying entirely on one machine. A similar principle can be applied to running a business: spread your opportunities across several services, websites and sources of income rather than depending entirely on one offering.
The Distributed Business Model
A traditional business might operate one website selling one main service. That can work extremely well, but it also creates dependency.
If demand falls, a competitor enters the market, advertising becomes more expensive or search-engine rankings change, a company relying on a single source of business can suddenly find itself exposed.
Stovin prefers a more distributed approach.
Instead of expecting one website to do everything, you can develop several complementary business offerings across a small portfolio of relevant domains. Each website can have a clearly defined purpose, audience and search strategy.
For example, a creative and marketing business could potentially operate separate offerings around:
- Web design
- SEO consultancy
- Graphic design and branding
- Marketing consultancy
- Recruitment or other specialist services
The objective isn’t to create dozens of thin websites. Every domain should have a genuine reason to exist, useful original content and a clear proposition for its intended customer.
Different Domains, Different Opportunities
Multiple domains can also provide room to experiment.
One website might target a particular geographical market while another concentrates on a specialist service. One proposition might succeed through organic search while another generates customers through referrals, advertising or direct marketing.
Over time, the results tell you where the strongest opportunities are.
A successful offering can receive additional investment. An unsuccessful experiment can be changed or discontinued without necessarily disrupting the entire company.
That creates something similar to distributed computing for business: several independent components contributing towards the strength of the overall operation.
There Is Still a Place for a Strong Main Brand
Distribution doesn’t mean abandoning your primary website.
For Stovin, the main brand remains important. A strong central website can establish reputation, showcase experience and bring the company’s different capabilities together.
Additional domains should complement that strategy rather than simply duplicate the same website repeatedly. From an SEO perspective, copying content across several domains or creating websites purely to manipulate links can be counterproductive.
Every business offering needs to stand on its own merits.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
Businesses face uncertainty. Markets change. Technology changes. Search engines change. Customer behaviour changes.
Diversification cannot remove those risks, but it can reduce dependence on one particular source of revenue.
Our philosophy is therefore simple:
Build a strong core business, but keep experimenting with additional opportunities.
Create several carefully considered offerings. Give each one a purpose. Measure what works. Invest more heavily in the winners.
Just like distributed computing, the strength of the system doesn’t have to depend on a single machine.
And in business, you don’t have to keep all your eggs in one basket either.
Stovin Advertising – creative design, SEO and marketing consultancy.
